New Build, any problems with it?

[Guest]

After a few months of planning, I have a build plan thats high in P-P.

CPU: Amd Athlon 64 x2 6400+@3.2Ghzw/ Cooler - ebay - $76

Mobo: Asus M4a785-M Am2/Am2+/Am3 Matx -Newegg- $69

Ram: Kingston HyperX 2Gb Stick DDR2 800 CAS 4 - Newegg - $45

Hdd's: Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB 16Mb (x2 in Raid 0) - Newegg - $50 each

Raid 0: SYBA SD-PEX40031 PCI-Express 2.0 SATA II - Newegg - $59

Case: LOGISYS Computer CS305BK Black - Newegg - $30

PSU: One in case is 30 watts better than my current, so...

Card Reader: SABRENT CRW-UINB 68-in-1 USB 2.0 Internal - Newegg - $10

Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD5770 Juniper XT 1GB - Own - $130

DVD-R: Sony Opticar DVD-RW 22X 2mb Sata - Own - $20


Hoping all this will make a delightfully fast system for the internet/gaming.
Is it all compatible?

 

[trnddwn33]

I would drop the raid controller and just use the onboard controller. The fake raid that that controller provides isn't going to give you a performance benefit. Use the extra cash to get a better cpu/vid card.

 

[eloric]

Check out this recent $500 configuration by Paul Henningsen in December's System Builder Marathon.

Note how he used a triple core cpu, which is better suited to gaming. An aftermarket cooler was added and it was overclocked to optimize performance for no extra price.

I know you are trying to save money on case and PSU, but Logisys does not make good power supplies - Antec, on the other hand, has a good reputation, and even though the one in the marathon was cheap, it should have an adequate quality and not risk frying your computer.

1 TB of disk dirve will probably not add much to the performance of the machine, even if it is in RAID0. consider a single 500 GB, or even a 320 GB drive, since your games will only consume a small percentage of that capacity. You can always upgrade that easily later on, as drive prices continue to drop.

The 5770 Video card is a good card, and will play almost any game at medium quality or better. If you have a little bit more money, think about an upgrade to a motherboard that has two PCIe slots with at least 8 X 8 bandwidth, then add a second 5770 in crossfire. That will make your gaming machine really stand out!

 

[eloric]

For almost the same price, here is a board that not only will crossfire two video cards, but is also future-proofed with usb3.0 and 6Gbs SATA: ASRock 870 EXTREME3 AM3.

Check this out: HIS H577FK1GD Radeon HD 5770 (Juniper XT) 1GB for $100 after rebate. Even if you don't get a second card immediately, this motherboard will still give you the option to add another at a later date.

Note that if you go with this option, you need to swap your memory for a compatible selection and upgrade your PSU to handle the two GPUs.